Arnie & Jack, by Ian O'Connor

3.99 USD

Surprisingly, one of sport’s most contentious, complex, and defining
clashes played out not in the boxing ring or at the line of scrimmage
but on the genteel green fairways of the world’s finest golf courses.
Arnie and Jack. Palmer and Nicklaus. Their fifty-year duel, in both the
clubhouse and the boardroom, propelled each to the status of American
icon and pushed modern golf to the heights and popularity it enjoys
today.

Yet for all the ink that has been spilled on these two
essential golf figures individually, no one has ever examined their
relationship in this way. Arnie was the cowboy, with rugged good looks,
Popeye-like forearms, a flailing swing, and charm enough to win fans
worldwide. Jack was scientific, precise, conservative, aloof, even fat
and awkward. Ultimately, Nicklaus got the better of Palmer on the
course, beating him in major victories, 18-7. But Palmer bested Nicklaus
almost everywhere else, especially in the hearts of the public and in
endorsement dollars -- Palmer was the top-grossing athlete for thirty
years, until Michael Jordan surpassed him.

With dogged reporting
and crisp, colorful storytelling, the award-winning sports columnist Ian
O’Connor explores this heated professional and personal battle in
fascinating, intimate, and revelatory detail. Drawing on unique and
exclusive access to Palmer and Nicklaus, and informed by some two
hundred new interviews, O’Connor illuminates the two men’s extreme
differences and sprawling influence through mini-dramas, such as their
little-known first meeting on the course at the topsy-turvy U.S. Open in
1962, their early involvement with marketing and a small agency called
IMG, and their intense competition for golf-course designs in their
later years.

By the end of this page-turning narrative, which
spans five remarkable decades, we see that each man wanted what the
other had: Arnold had the adoring fans but wanted the trophies. Jack had
the trophies but wanted the love.